Job Placement in Germany: Developments before and after Deregulation. IAB Labour Market Research Topics No. 31.

Walwei, Ulrich

Since 1994, the German public employment service has not had a monopoly on placement. A new law permits private job placement as an independent activity, but only with a license from the public employment service. Since deregulation, the number of job placement licenses has increased continuously, but the number of placements made by private agencies has remained relatively constant at 170,000-180,000 per 6-month period. Short-term placements constitute a definite emphasis of private agencies' activities. Although the number of placements in employment relationships exceeding 7 days has increased from a very low level, they hardly play an important role in quantitative terms. Only 4 percent of all placements made in the national economy could be attributed to private job placements in 1996. The market share of private recruitment is no more than 1.5 percent. The relationship of public and private placement services has a qualitative dimension. Public placement services no longer must deal with cases that can be adequately served by the market and can concentrate limited resources on issues for which the market cannot offer solutions. Target group orientation is not yet fully used. Cooperation between public and private placement services has been rare. The employment-creating effects of job placement activities are likely to remain relatively slight. Two figures, and 8 tables are appended. Contains 21 references. (YLB)